Why the CDN Should Be at the Heart of Your Fight Against Piracy
A safe network architecture is a key component in protecting valuable content.
There is a storm brewing that is helping content pirates. The budget cutbacks many consumers are considering due to economic challenges in many countries are accelerating the number of people turning to piracy. This is accentuated further by a growth in users who are increasingly more digitally adept. The Nordic market has always been one of the most advanced leaders of online and mobile consumption; for that reason, companies like HBO have chosen this region to launch in first.
One lesser-known detail is the rate of piracy has always been matching the market’s growth. More than one in four streams in Sweden is now pirated. This number is high across the region and that will accelerate elsewhere, too, unless the streaming companies fail to improve the way they manage their content. This in effect is increasing the cost of content and that in turn is fueling piracy. It’s a negative spiral but it can be turned around.
TV piracy is nothing new and has been an industry problem since the establishment of the first pay-TV services. Initial growth in cable and satellite TV was mirrored by equal and opposite growth in an illegal content industry, with pirates looking to undermine the smart card-based Conditional Access Systems employed at the time to encrypt the broadcast signal.
As the industry has moved to digital, the piracy problem has increased each step of the way. The widespread penetration of the internet and broadband services led to a growth in peer-to-peer networks and the introduction of piracy to the mainstream via technology such as BitTorrent. The introduction of streaming options from broadcasters, and especially the presence of sports on live streaming services, made a move to live streaming piracy possible and extremely profitable.
Organized crime got involved, and it is now possible for consumers to access incredibly sophisticated pirate services via special devices or widely accessible websites. For all intents and purposes, these offer the same features and functions as legitimate broadcasters. Indeed, it is possible that some consumers might not even realize they are hooked up to illegal services.
The figures involved are deeply concerning for an industry that needs to protect its revenues and investment in content at all costs. TV piracy is by far the most popular form of digital theft, representing 48% of all access to infringing sites, according to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Movies and music, the latter long the unwanted poster boy for pirated content, only account for 11% and 6%, respectively.
Putting some real-world implications on these numbers, analyst Kearney says that online video-content piracy is estimated to lose the global media sector $75 billion per year. Even worse, this figure is projected to reach $125 billion by 2028, representing an annual growth rate of nearly 11%. The U.S. is the worst infringer, accounting for 11% of all video piracy demand thanks to what Kearney says is a potent combination of high penetration of superfast broadband, widespread access to computers and devices, a large population culturally focused on Hollywood and less-effective enforcement legislation.
So what can streaming companies do?
Read the full article at the Agile Content blog here.
This article was first published by TV Tech.
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